me and Beethoven

(listening to the 5th has its disadvantages)

damned dangerous business,
measuring yourself against a maestro;
not for the faint-of-heart
or the otherwise weak-kneed among us:
when he died, with all that glorious,
melodious, and sometimes odious work
behind him,
he was only 57;
and I, pitiful with constancy,
am 54, awash with flights of fancy,
and my little spark does little against
the dark, as does his bonfire, tall,
and getting taller, higher and higher;
and so all of my sorry little words,
if strung end-to-end,
would never reach to
where Beethoven did begin.



January 24, 2009.

Copyright © 2009, Ricky A. Pursley. All rights reserved.